All known white tigers are
descendents of a white Bengal tiger named "Mohan," captured in 1951 in
India. The white coloration is the result of a double recessive gene.
The white tigers are not albinos; they have chocolate stripes and blue
eyes, although several variations in eye and stripe color have been seen.
White Bengal tigers are extremely rare in the wild: no sightings of white
tigers have been reported in India since the capture of Mohan, and only
about a dozen sightings were reported in the 50 years before that.

The Bengal tiger is the only
subspecies of tiger to carry the recessive gene for the white color. Mohan
was first bred to a normally colored Bengal tiger, and then bred to one
of his normally colored daughters. This resulted in the first white tiger
cubs to be born in captivity.

Due to the extreme popularity
of the beautiful white tigers among zoo guests, and because these animals
tolerate captivity very well, they have been part of an aggressive breeding
program. Some conservationists find this disturbing, since some subspecies
of tigers hover on the verge of extinction, and the white tiger is considered
an aberrant Bengal tiger, rather than a valid subspecies.

Since white tigers have been
bred indiscriminately with the other subspecies of tigers, particularly
the Siberian, it is assumed that most of the white tigers in captivity
today are hybrids.

Many people assume that white
tigers are Siberian tigers, possibly due to the assumption that their
white coloring would be protective camouflage against the snowy Siberian
landscape. Ironically, no white tigers have ever been reported in Russia,
and their stark white color would be a decided handicap in the jungles
of India.

(See the description of the
Bengal tiger for more information about white tigers.)